Sunday, July 31, 2016

It doesn't get much better than this: Photos from a visit to the Sekine Factory in February, 1978. Until now, I'd only seen a few shots of the factory, most often in blurry black and white. Gold like these photos keeps me searching for more.

Thanks to BrownGW and his sales/ distributor friend (source) and Bike Fanatic (scanning) for these slides. Here's the Bike Forums Thread where this started. If anyone else has old Sekine factory photos, I'd love to see them.

Sunday, July 10, 2016

It's been a few years since my last post, but I'll always be interested in anything related to Sekine Bicycles that comes to light. Over the next few months, I'd like to pick up a little where I left off, and post some of the stuff that I've gathered since the Sekine Zine was published.

Back when I was putting together the Sekine zine, I lived in Vancouver, and used to search Craigslist postings constantly. I even started looking at listings from other provinces. There were, as you might expect, dozens of old ten-speeds posted across the prairies, lots in Ontario, and a few in Quebec. Most of them were the low to mid-range bikes, quite used or modified, and often overpriced (see my related post, What's it Worth?)

Once in a while, I'd find someone selling real gold- a completely original bike pulled from the storage shed where it sat for 30 years. Or a bike, claimed to be still in the original box from the factory. Or, a top of the line PR-10 "professional racer" model like this one:

By far, the most interesting bike I ever saw in the used listings was completely unexpected: A Sekine tandem. I didn't believe it at first, and to this day it's a bit of a mystery (like most things Sekine). I think it was for sale in Edmonton, of all places, but this was four years ago.

Sekine Tandem. Custom road + mixte frames?

The "Modern" decaling looks original, and it might even have a "Medialle" head badge. The frame looks like a welder added a mixte to the end of a road bike, and used a stock fork. Parts all look stock- brakes, bars, cranks, wheels.

Front end. Stock fork and cruiser bars. I wonder if the stock Shimano
Tourney center-pull brakes are capable of stopping those steel rims on a
descent.

Ladies get to stoke.

This bike is still out there, in someone's garage. Have you seen it, or any other neat Sekine stuff? Let me know. In the meantime, I'll get some more posts up, and you can still get an original Sekine Zine.